Today was an extremely fruitful day of birding in western Ohio for Emil Bacik and I. Posted up at Shelby Rd. Marina in Sandusky, overlooking Turning Point Island in the early AM, we watched the first three Cattle Egrets head off the island at 6:30 AM, and then five more birds, including one juvenile, sit in the trees out the outskirts of the island, where they were still perched when we left. A hard-earned year bird for Emil - #294. We also watched 40 Great Egrets and 3000 Double-crested Cormorants leave the island, and a pair of Peregrine Falcons and an Osprey were nearby.
We continued eastward to check the Huron River Pier area for my year bird nemesis - Laughing Gull. When you're doing a Big Year, every single species counts, and I have spent more than my share of hours searching for this species in particular. As the Cattle Egret with Emil, this had become my nemesis bird. Arriving at Huron, we discovered several thousand gulls feeding in the area, a good mid-summer concentration. 31 Bonaparte's were noted amongst the hordes, but alas no Laughing Gull. We walked out to check out the impoundment, and I swung my binocs once more along the breakwall, and there it was - juvenile Laughing Gull posing atop the rocks (#285)! Perhaps it will stick around...there are more gulls here than I've seen anywhere else along the lakefront this summer.
Finally, we stopped at Pickerel Creek, where there were Black-bellied Plover (3), HUDSONIAN GODWIT (1 ad), MARBLED GODWIT (2 juv), White-rumped Sandpiper (3), Stilt Sandpiper (76), and Wilson's Phalarope (2), among 600+ shorebirds present.
Good birding -
Gabe Leidy
Cleveland
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